With a recent increase in celebrities drawing the world's attention to international issues such as poverty, debt eradication, and pandemic diseases, panelists explored how celebrities can most effectively use their fame as a means of adding credibility and attracting attention to global issues.

Authors discussed the 7th issue of One Issue, Two Voices, which took a comparative look at the economic performance of Canada and the United States from the standpoint of the widening productivity gap between the two countries.

There is a strong regional and international market for the minerals and forest products extracted from the Great Lakes countries. The challenge is for this lucrative trade to directly benefit the majority of the people living in the region, rather than the corrupt few who have typically exploited these resources.

Poorly designed and implemented trade policies are prolonging violent conflicts; and aid programs, as they are currently constructed, are not achieving their stated goals of alleviating poverty, warns Oli Brown of IISD.

Co-authors of the new Worldwatch report, Beyond Disasters: Creating Opportunities for Peace, presented some of their main findings on how natural disasters in conflict zones can foster or hinder peace.

Glen Hodgson, of the Conference Board of Canada, and co-author Jack Triplett, of the Brookings Institution, assessed why the United States has enjoyed a surge in productivity over the past decade, while Canada's own productivity growth fell behind that of the United States.

Author Robert Bothwell discussed Alliance and Illusion: Canada and the World 1945-1984, which provides an in-depth study of Canada's modern leaders, particularly how international events in the decades following World War II influenced and shaped Canada's foreign relations.